


How Wade Wilson Cured his Fear of Spiders by Falling in Love with One

by Rin_Okumoron



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter can talk to spiders, Slow Burn, Spider!Peter, fangs, natural webbing, second mutation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-05-25 04:33:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14969198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rin_Okumoron/pseuds/Rin_Okumoron
Summary: After landing a job in a pet store that specializes in tarantulas, everything is going pretty well, until Peter Parker's body starts mutating again. Meanwhile, Deadpool is hanging out in the same shop everyday trying to get over his fear of spiders. He doesn't want to insult his hero Spider-Man once he finally work up the courage to meet him. For all he knows, Spider-Man might be buddies with them, and crushing one in his presence just wasn't going to be an option.





	1. Mutation One

**Author's Note:**

> This story is basically a more spidery Spider-Man au mixed with a pet shop au. 
> 
> This is my first time writing for this fandom, so I hope to do the characters justice. I would really appreciate constructive feedback, or really any comments. They let me know you want more. :)

“Peter would you mind taking the extra set of keys and closing up when they leave? I’ve got to run to the store before it closes.” An older balding man with a slightly pudgy stomach tossed a key chain, which Peter caught with out looking.  
“No problem Mr. Spinster.”  
“Peter, you can call me John, we’ve been over this.”  
“ Right, uh… sorry John.”  
The man walked over to whisper, “keep an eye on her by the way”  
Peter looked surprised, “the little girl?”  
He shook his head, “the mother, I’ve been catching her glaring at my babies.”  
Peter suppressed a chuckle, “what ever you say John, now go, I’ve got things taken care of.”

Peter listened to the mother and her daughter and noticed the daughter pointing at a beautiful blue fang skeleton. “Look at this one mom! Isn’t she pretty?”  
“I just don’t understand your fascination with them Sophie, this store has hamsters and birds too you know, nice pets.”  
“You promised mom, all A’s and I get my first tarantula.”  
The mother sighed in defeat, “right well lets just take this one I guess”

Peter was already heading over to explain that she most certainly wouldn’t want the Bluefang as a first pet when the idiot lady unclasped the lid and stuck her idiot hand in the case to pick the spider up. Peter darted over the counter and was next to the woman in seconds, amusing the little girl and startling the woman.  
“Miss I ask that you please put her back, this species doesn’t like being held”  
The woman looked angry as she held the little creature, “what is that point of a pet you can’t play with? Surely you’re mistaken.”  
“Mom give him the tarantula, she looks angry at you.”  
Peter sighed as he looked at the Bluefang getting into a defense position. He quickly scooped the spider from her hands wincing as it bit him instead of the person it was aiming for.  
“Mom! You made her bite him!”  
The woman scoffed, “it bit him because he took her from me”  
The small blue-faced spider looked at him grumpily, if he had to guess he would say she was upset she hadn’t gotten her target.  
Peter cleared his voice as he put the Bluefang back, “now then I heard someone was looking for a first pet.”

After helping the family choose the much friendlier amazon sapphire pink toe, and teaching the little girl to care for her new friend, he had no doubt the little arachnid would be well cared for. The girl really did have a love for spiders. He was about to close up when he noticed a figure in a gray hoodie peering at the spiders in the far corner of the shop. “Excuse me sir, I’m closing up soon, so if you want to come back tomorrow you can, but it’s passed closing time.” Hoodie man stood up and turned around ducking his head so it was difficult to see his whole face. The bits that did show however were heavily scarred.  
“Sorry cutie, just checking out the creepy crawlies, I’ll be out of you hair, don’t you fret.” He strolled out the door in a fashion that made peter temped to check the cages to see if he had snuck a spider out. They had a walk that looked far too jolly for a man of his stature. 

With an exasperated sigh Peter Parker closes Spinster’s Special Pets exactly 1 hour and 12 minutes after closing time. The walk home was pretty chilly for April, and Peter snuggles deeper into his thick coat before his spidey sense went on full alert. 

Sprinting into an alleyway Peter regretfully shed his clothes and warm fleece before springing into the sky as Spider-man. A Man was being held at gunpoint in what looked like a drug deal gone wrong. Cash littered the ground, but the Woman on the other end of the gun paid it no mind. Perched on the side of the building, he heard the woman curse at the man cowering in fear, “I told you Chris, this ain’t gonna cut it anymore; you want the good shit, you pay for it. You know I don’t fuck around, and you dare bring that shitty little knife to what? Try to negotiate? Dumbass.” Just before she fired the gun was yanked from her hand by a line of webbing.  
“Two bad guys in one, must be my lucky night.” Spidey laughed before jumping down. The woman threw the first punch, but Spiderman was faster dodging out of the way and webbing her legs together. As she falls his spidey sense alerted him to movement behind him and he shot a web at the target. “Not so fast Mr. Criminal, you’re a bad guy too.”

Two struggling bad guy cocoons and one post it note explanation later, He swings back to grab his stuff before swinging to his dingy little apartment. Peter’s apartment wasn’t much to look at, but it was pretty good space wise for the money. Sure the sink in the kitchen no longer worked so you had to wash dishes in the bathroom, and the whole place was crawling with spiders, but at least they limited the roach population. Peter had actually become rather fond of his 8 legged roommates, they kept insects out and took up very little room. Wasting no time with changing into any sort of pjs, Peter stripped off his suit and fell face first onto his old mattress. 

The next morning He noticed that the little bite on his hand was almost completely gone, and had stopped stinging, but there was an odd ache right above his hips on both sides. Peering into the bathroom mirror revealed two identical bumps with indented centers, almost like a big bug bite. Poking the actual bite didn’t really do anything, but when he poked around it a muscle he didn’t know he had moved suddenly and the hole in the center shot out white silk in a string on the wall. Peter shouted in surprise and flung himself back, leaving a white thread connecting him to the wall. Tugging on it proved that it was very sturdy, and he began walking away only to watch the silk continue to extend. Clenching down with the new muscles around what appeared to be natural spinnerets stopped him from moving any father away from the bathroom wall. He tugged as hard as he could, which only caused the wallpaper to be torn from the wall. While the wallpaper was hideous anyway, it certainly didn’t help his increasing panic. Instead of dealing with it, Peter did what any stressed person would do, and simply walked back to bed, the wallpaper dragging behind him.

It wasn’t until he was calm that he began trying to rationalize, “okay so maybe this is just a super late mutation, and there’s nothing to worry about. Just deal with this like your other totally not gross mutations.” He looked down at the place where the muscles were still firmly holding the silk in place, “nope, never mind, that’s gross.” The muscles were starting to become sore from keeping firm for what had to have been at least half an hour, so Peter forced his muscles and let out a shout when the line of thread fell from his side “Yes! It’s off, oh thank god” It was in this temporary moment of elation that his phone rang.  
“Peter, it’s John. I know it’s your day off, but Elaine caught the flu, so I need a helping hand today. Think you can come down?”  
Casting a disgusted look towards his newest mutation, figuring he’d just have to mess with it when he got home Peter sighed, “Sure thing, give me thirty minutes.”  
“Knew I could count on you Peter! See you soon.”

With that he hung up the phone and slid off the bed. He shuffled into a fresh pair of jeans and work shirt before looking again at the two new annoyances on his hip and sticking Band-Aids over the top. “Last thing I need is to web up the inside of my shirt.” He explained as if they could hear the lack of amusement in his voice. Leaving the wallpaper and strand of webbing on the floor beside his bed, a grumpy, confused and tired Peter made his way to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is now art!!! Drawn by me https://ice-cold-corgi.tumblr.com/post/175257498686/heres-a-quick-sketch-of-peter-parker-from-the


	2. Second mutation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will hopefully clear up some questions of what universe this takes place in. Basically it's after homecoming, but ignoring Infinity Wars. Bruce Banner and Thor are back though, because I say so.
> 
> I had a tricky time writing the interaction between Wade and Peter. I hope I ported their civilian personalities to everyone's liking.

Peter ran a good bit of the way there, wanting to make it in 30 minutes as he had told his boss, but John just laughed when he saw him rush in. “No need to run Peter, this old man can handle a store by himself for a while you know.”  
“I know, I just like to be punctual.”  
“Go put your stuff in the back and work the front would you?”  
“Sure thing”

Peter threw his bag in the back on the shelf assigned to him, and double-checked that his hidden pouch for his mask was well concealed. On the way to the front counter He noticed a familiar figure hunched in front of a lower tank. Leaning down peter saw him looking at a Mexican Red leg. The black and red tarantula looked inquisitively at the man directly in front of its enclosure. Peter spoke up, “you know, she’s really sweet, I can bring her out if you’d like to hold her” The man appeared startled that someone was speaking to him and let out a frantic, “No!” Looking at peter’s confused expression he mended his statement, “I mean, um, no thanks. She probably wouldn’t like a big guy like me holding her, um, not scary little body.” Peter let out a laugh, “A big tough guy like you scared of spiders.”  
“They are terrifying, not my fault.”  
“Sure… So what brings you to looking at the scary little critters?”  
The man’s face lit up at that, “a boy” he said dreamily.  
“Oh yeah?”  
“ Mhmmm, man’s got a fondness for spiders I imagine, and if I’m gonna get a piece of that sweet ass I gotta get used to them.”  
Peter sputtered at that, “wh-what?”  
“Oh it’s not just his ass though, He’s such a good guy, real hero type, you know? Funny too, the whole damn package.”  
“Well then, how about I help out? You see I’m rather fond of spiders myself.”  
“Really?!”  
“Kinda my job. I mean, not really, but it is my job to help people get the perfect pet and understand them. Consider this helping you understand them.”  
The man nearly pushed him the rest of the way to the floor in an awkward crouched hug. “You’re the best…” He looked to the nametag on Peter’s shirt, “Peter. Name’s Wade, Wade Wilson.”  
“Peter Parker.”

The two stood up and Peter brought Wade over to the counter, pulling out a large book. “First step to not fearing something is to understand it.” Wade nodded sagely. “So just to get this out of the way, yes tarantulas have venom, there isn’t a spider that doesn’t. Tarantulas, like most spiders in America however don’t have anything strong enough to actually hurt people, which is why they are considered not dangerous.”  
“Petey as cool as that sounds it’s not the venom I’m worried about.”  
Peter’s eyebrows rose, “Oh, so if not the bite, what scares you?”  
“Not sure, they just have too many eyes, and legs… I like the fur though, I imagine it’s be soft, and the colors were very nice.”  
“You know I could go grab the one you were looking at before. She’s a real sweetie, I bet she’d let you pet her.”  
“I don’t know if I can…”  
“That’s fine, I’ll bring her over and you can try, okay? I’ll hold her the whole time.”  
Wade nodded and stayed put as he went to get the little red leg.

She really was quite pretty; her black and red-orange fur was quite stunning. Wade flinched a little as Peter came back over, “It’s okay Wade, take your time.” Peter kept her gaze on his own face, knowing the man probably didn’t want to see her eyes, even though there were only two they were quite strange. Wade slowly reached out the lay a single scarred finger on her back, and true to Peter’s words she didn’t even budge. Trailing his finger down her back he let out a sigh, “She’s soft.” Peter smiled and allowed him to continue lightly petting her back. 

After a while of petting the door chimed, and broke the calm that had settled over the store. Wade drew his hand back and Peter drew the little arachnid closer to himself. “I’m going to go see if they need help and put her back for now.” Wade nodded, “I think I should get going anyway,” he hesitated a moment, “will you be here tomorrow?”  
“Nope, but I'm Here Thursday”  
“Thanks for your help Peter. See you Thursday?”  
“It’s my job Wade, I'll see you then.”

Wade was honestly the only exciting thing that happened all day, it was mostly just past customers coming in for food or other supplies. Thanks to that, the day seemed to drag on far longer than normal, and Peter was ecstatic to see that it was closing time. Peter headed to the back to grab his bag, and after checking to be sure he wasn’t needed the rest of the night, he began the walk home. Luckily it seemed too cold for much to be going on, so Peter was allowed a rare quiet trip home, that is until his mouth started aching like crazy. 

What had started as a dull ache was a full on pain by the time he reached his apartment. He rushed to the bathroom sink to spit of a mouthful of blood and noticed his top canines were incredibly loose. No one teaches you what to do in these situations, so Peter just stood there watching his teeth in the mirror as he poked at them with his tongue. Not being able to stand the pain much longer he decided to just bite the bullet and pull them out, which took far less strength than he would have liked. “Wonder if the tooth fairy still comes for adult teeth…” he wondered aimlessly, trying desperately to squash the fear that was making him sick to his stomach with a bit of humor. It was of course then that he realized it was nearly 10 and he hadn’t eaten since lunch. Sure he could skip it, he didn’t really want to eat missing two teeth anyways, but he’d skipped quite a few meals recently and his super-powered metabolism wasn’t do him any favors. 

Peter trudged out of the bathroom, and grabbed a bowl, pouring in some soup and throwing it into the microwave. The last thing he wanted to do right now was chew anything. After going through enough soup to feed a 4-person family, he threw himself onto his old couch and turned on the TV. 

Unfortunately the news showed he wasn’t quite as lucky as he’d originally thought. Two men were holding a group hostage in a fucking Ihop of all places. From what the news reporter was saying, the men were armed heavily and the police were making no headway with negotiation. With a groan Spider-Man was up and ready for duty, “I swear is one night of peace too much to ask for?” 

Fortunately the building wasn’t very far, and he made it to the back of the building and tried the door. To his surprise it swung open easily leading him into a kitchen that smelled strongly of maple syrup. The smell made him hungry and his mouth ached horribly, his gums feeling like someone was stabbing them. All of the appliances were shut down, and the messy abandoned kitchen was slightly eerie. Climbing onto the ceiling, he crawled over to the service window, peering out into the restaurant. The group of hostages was sitting in a group on the ground while two buff, armed men watched the array of police cars outside. One man had his gun pressed against the head of a woman pulled up to stand in front of anything. The other was slightly leaning against the cashier counter, the store phone held in one hand, and a gun held in the other. “Listen chief, you do anything funny and we shoot, you got it?” He said into the phone, his voice rough. 

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Spider-Man shot a web at the gun of bozo number one, yanking it away from the woman’s head. The sound of a shot pierced the air and a few citizens sobbed horribly. Luckily it was the gun whose muzzle was now aimed at a wall thanks to his web. Another sharp tug and the weapon was ripped from the man’s grasp. “Really guys? An Ihop, come on. What did pancakes ever do to you?’ His spidey sense warned him to move his head just as another shot went off. “Touchy subject got it!” This time the bullet flew right past the spot he hung upside down in the window. He flipped into the room as he webbed the first gun to the floor, and shot another strand of web at the other. Bozo one abandoned the woman in favor of running straight at Him, and he narrowly avoided a tackle by flipping gracefully out of the way. “Whoa, someone played football! Not good enough for a scholarship?” Spider-Man laughed. The other gun was snatched by hand, and he used the butt end to Slam Bozo one against the wall. Now without his firearm, Bozo two switched to a knife at his belt. Peter flipped backwards, leading the man away from the hostages. “You guys sure don’t talk much, spider got your tongue?” A well-placed kick had Bozo two against the wall, and some quick web work made sure he stayed there.

Spider-Man turned back to the people huddled together on the floor, “You guys are good to go. Spider-Man out!” He ran back through the kitchen and out the back door he had come in through. He would have stayed out longer if not for the piercing feeling in his gums that had him just wanting to sleep. With a tired sigh he swung back home. 

When he woke up the next morning the pain had nearly receded. The rushed to the bathroom and immediately paled at what he saw. Two sharp fangs sat neatly where his old canines had been. Luckily they weren’t too noticeable unless you were specifically looking for them. Nonetheless, they were seriously freaky. Stripping off his shirt showed the two Band-Aids stuck above his hips. Peeling them off, Peter just stood in the mirror looking at his two new mutations, ‘okay, this seriously needs to stop.’ His stomach rumbled and as if on cue, a slightly viscous liquid started to leak into his mouth. The fluid tasted bitter, and almost reminded him of a strong coffee. It left him wanting something to wash it out of his mouth, so he rushed to the kitchen for breakfast. 

After every bite, more of the stuff he realized was probably venom leaked from his hollow fangs. “This is just nasty” he mumbled through a spoonful of cereal, “on the bright side though, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” After throwing his bowl into the sink, he decided to try to make the most of the situation and practice shooting the webs from his hips. The fibers were strong, and once he got the hang of it, they were quite easy to control. In no time he had a full sized web in the corner of his living room made completely of his own silk. 

He only got better at it from there. He found that like his engineered silk, he had full control over whether or not he stuck to it. He was able lie in a silken hammock made from his own webs, and swing lightly back and forth. The more he used his webs however, the weaker they came out and the hungrier he got. When he finally stopped for lunch, they could barely even support his own weight anymore. He realized in order to actually produce his own silk he would need to actually eat right, which is no small task for a 22 year old college student. 

Even with how cool his new webs were, he couldn’t help but wonder why he was mutating again. It had been years since the original spider bite, and he hadn’t shown any sign of further mutation. Now, out of nowhere his body was changing, and not in the Captain America PSA “So your body is changing.” Kinda way. He started wondering if paying the Avengers a visit might be a good idea. He hadn’t seen Bruce in a while, and this kinda thing seemed like his department. Besides, Tony always got mad when he had to figure out what up with Peter from Aunt May. 

Mind made up, he perched on his counter with a bologna sandwich. Trying to ignore the venom drooling out of his mouth, he called up his old mentor, Tony Stark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is now art!!! Drawn by me https://ice-cold-corgi.tumblr.com/post/175257498686/heres-a-quick-sketch-of-peter-parker-from-the


	3. third mutation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we finally meet some of the Avengers. Since this takes place years after Civil War, the band has made up for the most part. I hope I characterized everyone well!

Tony picked up on the third ring, which was honestly a little unusual, he was sure he’d need to leave a message.  
“What’s wrong kid?”  
“Why do you always assume something is wrong? Maybe I just want to catch up, I haven’t heard from you in like a month.”  
“Uh huh… something is wrong though isn’t it? I can hear it in your voice.”  
“Well… I wouldn’t say ‘wrong’ necessarily.”  
“Hell kid, what did you do?”  
“That’s a really good question… Can I just come over? I kinda need to talk to Bruce.”  
“Ooooohhhh I see how it is. One genius scientist not good enough for you?”  
“No no no! I just need his experience with well… mutations…”  
“I’m messing with you squirt… Wait mutations? What happened?”  
“Relax, I’m fine… I think…”  
“Hold on I’m sending a car.”  
“Thanks Tony.”

Talking with Tony always made Peter feel like such a little kid, and this time was no different. At least he had stopped calling him Underoos, that nickname quickly lost it’s charm once he looked up what it meant. Being the youngest on the team was already bad enough; he didn’t need to have himself compared to little kids wearing superhero underwear. Once he had gotten into college Tony had eased up a bit on the safety measures, but there were still a few features on his suit that were a tad overprotective: for example, the bedtime alert at 2am, and the warning beep that went off when he swore. The later was put in to “keep innocent mouths innocent,” but honestly, he rarely swore in the suit anyway.

The car showed up in a little over an hour, which it most definitely should not have. When he walked up to the car and tapped on the glass, “You know Happy, I don’t know what Mr. Stark told you, but it really isn’t an emergency.” The back window rolled down. “Get in Peter,” Tony said leaning out the window. Peter sighed and climbed in. “Really Tony, I’m fine.”  
“I’ll be the judge of that, what did you meal about mutation?”  
“I might be mutating again…”  
“How’d that happen?!”  
“I don’t know, that’s what I wanted to ask Bruce.”  
“So, what changed?”  
“Um… It’s kinda gross…”  
“Just tell me.”  
Peter sighed and opened his mouth wide, pulling up his top lip to show off his new set of fangs. “Yikes kiddo.”  
“That’s not the worst part, I also have venom I think”  
“That’s not really gross, just a tad creepy.”  
“No but this is,” Peter pulled up one side of his shirt to reveal the spinneret perched above his hipbone.  
“Okay what in the hell is that?”  
“It’s a web shooter I guess, like on an actual spider.”  
“So do you produce your own webs now?”  
“Yeah it’s not that bad, I just want to talk to Bruce and make sure this is as far as it goes.”  
“Sure thing, we’ll be there soon.”  
“Ummm… Tony?”  
“Yes?”  
“How fast over the speed limit are we going?”  
“Don’t worry about it.”

When they arrived at the compound, Peter immediately called out to Friday, “Hey Friday, you know where Dr.Banner is?”  
“He appears to be in the kitchen.”  
“Thanks!”  
Peter headed there with Tony on his heels. 

Going into the kitchen appeared to be a terrible idea, the second the smell of something appetizing hit his nose, his nearly empty stomach rumbled, and a familiar bitterness filled his mouth. “Ewwwww,” he groaned, and Bruce Immediately spoke up, “For your information, I’m a pretty good cook Peter.” He walked over to where Peter was standing in the entryway, “Seriously, no need to pull that face.”  
“It’s not the cooking, it’s a weird taste in my mouth. Trust me the food smells great.”  
“So, what’s wrong?”  
“Why does everyone automatically assume something is wrong?”  
Tony laughed and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder, “Force of habit kid.”  
“Sooo?” Bruce prompted  
“I-umm… might be mutating again”  
“Mutating? Mutating how?”  
“Well for starters; this awful stuff, that I’m pretty sure is venom, keeps filling my mouth when I want to eat.”  
“I’ll have to take a sample of it. If you’re okay waiting like an hour dinner will be ready, then I can give you a full check up okay?”  
“Thanks Dr. Banner, besides, dinner sounds really good right now.”  
“You look thin, have you been eating right?”  
“I swear you’re almost as bad as Tony. I’m eating fine, it’s just hard to keep up with a super metabolism.”  
Dr. Banner didn’t seem to believe him, but he went back to the stove anyway, “I’d ask you to help, but you’re literally drooling right now and I don’t feel like being poisoned.”

Peter frantically wiped his sleeve over his mouth to get rid of the venom and Tony laughed. “Oh sure laugh it up.”  
“Come on squirt, let’s go watch some TV.”

About half an hour in, Peter started hearing this odd noise over the TV. It was fairly quiet, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to stop focusing on it. “What the hell is that noise Tony?”  
Tony looked up from his phone, “What noise Peter?”  
“That weird… I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like a gritty chirping.”  
“I really don’t hear anything”  
“Whatever, it’s probably nothing.” Peter shrugged; really his hearing was much better than normal, so it was probably nothing. He continued to tell himself that, even though something at that back of his mind kept telling him to pay more attention to the noise

Another 30 minutes went by before Bruce called out that dinner was ready. Tony called out, “Friday, please alert everyone to come to the dinning area.”  
“Wait, everyone? Who’s here right now?” Peter asks as he worked to help bring food over to the table.  
“Steve is here, and Nat should be here too. Clint could be here, it depends on his mood.”  
Peter nodded and grabbed some paper towels to wipe the venom dripping from his mouth, “I really hope this isn’t going to be like this forever.”  
Bruce walked over and patted him on the shoulder, “I’ll have to run some tests, but my guess is if this mutation is permanent you should get more control over it. Kind of like how baby snakes have to learn not to release all of their venom at once.”  
“I really hope you’re right, because this is getting annoying,”

Peter sat down at the table as the last bowl of pasta was brought over. There was a lot of food, which was not helping Peter’s venom problem. Natasha was the first to walk in, “This smells great Bruce.” She noticed Peter as she went to sit down, “Hello Peter, I didn’t know you would be joining us tonight.”  
“Yeah, it was kinda a spur of the moment thing.”  
“Having troubles are we?”  
“Eugh, all of you say that. I’ll be fine, really. A little mutating hasn’t hurt me yet.”  
“Mutating?”  
Tony sat down next to Peter at the table, “Our little spiderling’s got some new tricks.”  
“As entertaining as I’m sure this is, can we-“  
He was cut off by Steve walking into the room, “Peter, what a pleasure! You doing alright son?”  
Peter just groaned and put his head on the table. Tony laughed, “Kid’s been asked that by everyone here, and of course, the answer is no.”  
“I should’ve just dealt with it at home,” Peter mumbled.

Everyone had begun eating, but Peter was still hesitant to bring the paper towel away from his mouth.  
“It’s okay Peter, we really don’t mind,” Steve tried to reassure.  
“It’s gross though.”  
“You’ve already started leaking through the towel, so who cares?” Tony added. Sure enough, the cloudy yellow liquid had mostly seeped through. With a sigh Peter removed the pater towel and started eating. 

The rest of the meal was relatively quiet, aside from the strange chirping that would start up every now and then, and luckily the venom had died down once he had started eating. After everything was all cleaned up, Dr. Banner led Peter to his lab. “Alright Peter, I’m going to need to take some samples of your webbing and your venom, then I’ll run a basic diagnostic over the rest of you, okay?”  
“Sounds good doc.” He was handed a tube, which he carefully placed over his fang as he began thinking of food to get his venom going. After a substantial amount had dripped in.  
“ Great, now I’m going to need a sample of your webs, if you just shoot a strand against that wall, I should be able to get some of it to look at.”  
With a grimace Peter pulled up his shirt and did what he was asked. Dr. Banner used scissors to get a bit of it into a glass container. “Now I just need to do an overall physical examination to be sure nothing else has changed.”

At the urging of Dr. Banner and the rest of the overprotective crew, Peter decided to spend the night at the compound and just wake up early for work tomorrow. Luckily, he still had a guest room reserved for him, so it wasn’t difficult to fall asleep in the familiar environment. 

Peter was in a rush to get ready the next morning, shoveling a few breakfast bars into his bag. “Whoa kid, where’s the fire?” Tony called as he walked into the kitchen.  
“I’ve got to get to work, and it’s a long drive that’s all. Can I borrow a car by the way?”  
“Settle down Peter, I can drive you there in an hour.”  
“Not while following traffic laws you can’t.”  
Tony shrugs, “Fine, hour and a half.”  
Peter gives in with a sign, “That’s better, and sure, I’ll take you up on that.”  
“Let me get dressed, you sit and actually eat for once.”  
“Yes dad.” Peter said mockingly. 

Once he actually sat down to eat a bowl of sugary cereal he knew was Clint’s, he began to hear the odd chirping noise from last night. Except there was one major difference, he seemed to be able to understand it. It wasn’t words per say, more like feelings and ideas being conveyed by the strange grating chitters.  
_Hungry, need web spot, !!!! big creature, curious_  
Peter looked down to find a rather big wolf spider near the edge of the table that seemed to be staring at him.  
_Big creature, FRIEND? Friend? ___  
The noise definitely appeared to be coming from the spider, who kept repeating itself. Peter reached a hand towards it slowly, “I won’t hurt you little guy” The spider seems wary, but leans forward to press a leg to Peter’s arm.  
_Big Friend_  
Peter chuckles a bit and nods in conformation before realizing he’s just been talking to a spider, “I’d say I’ve lost it, but this is hardly the strangest thing to happen.” The wolf spider climbs onto his hand and just sits there while Peter finishes his breakfast.

____

____

“Alright Peter, I’m ready to go when you are- What the fuck is on your hand?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been doing a lot of research on spiders for this fic. Turns out Wolf spiders, and tarantulas are some of the few types of spiders that we can hear make their little chirp noises. If you are wondering, the sound comes from rubbing body parts together, similar to crickets, so Peter can't replicate the sound just yet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Technically i got this out Monday, so I'm keeping to schedule. This chapter is a bit shorter, because I have two commissions I was working on at the same time. Luckily one of them is done, so I'll have more time to write this week.

Peter stilled in putting his bowl in the dishwasher, looking down at his hand on the counter, and the little spider resting on it. “Oh… um it’s a spider”  
“No shit Sherlock, what is it doing on your hand?”  
The wolf spider chittered nervously.  
_Loud, friend hide!_  
Peter sighed and ran a careful finger down her fuzzy back, “It’s okay. Tony you’re scaring her.”  
“Don’t tell me you understand it.”  
“Ummm…”  
“Great, Spider-Man the spider whisperer. Lets get going Peter, and leave your new buddy outside the car.”  
Peter laughed lightly and coaxed the spider down onto the counter, “I’ll be back later, okay?”  
Friend? Confused  
Peter sighed, “I don’t think she understands me”  
“Well that’s too bad. Now come on, I thought the whole point was not to be late.”

The trip was a fairly short one, and Tony suggested he call after work and come back to the compound to talk to Dr. Banner about the test results. Walking into the pet shop, he was immediately assaulted by the noises of all of the different tarantulas.  
_Friend!!!_  
_!!!!!!_  
Large mother!!  
Feed!  
Peter looked at the different cages to find most of the spiders looking at him. He hadn’t realized before how much they seemed to like him, but almost all of them were cheering at his entry into the shop. Some of the younger ones were even calling him their mother, which was really cute if you ask him. John walked from the back, “Morning Peter! I’ve got a lot of order to place, so would you mind feeding everyone before we open?”  
“Oh, sure thing Mr. Spinster!”  
“John!”  
Peter laughed, “Right, sorry!”

Peter decided to feed the tarantulas first, they took up most of the animals anyway. Not to mention, he doubted they would be happy if he feed anyone else first, and now that he could understand them, he didn’t want to make them sad. He started dropping crickets into their tanks, and giggled at their pleased chirps.  
_Mother!!!_  
Grateful, good mother  
Hungry!  
Peter gave the ones who liked to be pet a few strokes, but was surprised to find even the ones who didn’t like attention or handling were still very thankful.  
“They seem to like you a lot.”  
Peter jumped and spun around so fast he nearly dropped the box of crickets he was holding. Wade was standing directly behind him, the hoodie pulled over his head not hiding his amused smirk, “Did I scare you? Sorry spider keeper.”  
“How’d you get in? We aren’t open yet.”  
“I know, but the door was unlocked, and you were here so…”  
“Never mind, want to help feed the spiders? It can be the second step of getting used to them.”  
“Oh, uh, sure.” Wade seemed tentative as peter put a pair of chopsticks into his hand.  
“Know how to work these bad boys?”  
“Peter I am offended, you think I eat cheep New York Chinese food with anything less then the best wooden cutlery?”  
Peter laughed, “Good, just pick up two crickets and put them in there with the tarantula, they’ll find it eventually so don’t worry if they don’t eat right away.”

Wade picked up the cricket with ease and slowly put it into the cage of the Mexican Red leg he had met the other day.  
_Friend return? Food? Bring food? Good friend._  
“She likes you know, I think she remembered you.”  
“Aww that’s sweet of you to say Petey.”  
“No really Wade. You should look, this one only has two eyes you know”  
Wade looked at the tarantula and smiled a bit, “I guess she’s not all bad.”  
Peter couldn’t help watch the small smile that pulled at the corners of Wade’s rough lips. 

They went around to the rest of the tarantulas, and to Peter’s delight he seemed to be getting more comfortable around them. “You know Wade, you’re making a lot of progress.”  
“You really think so?”  
“Definitely, I’m sure this boy of yours will be really proud of you.”  
“Well I haven’t actually met him in person yet.”  
“Really? Who is it.”  
“Now that’s a secret Petey Pie, you have to be a level 10 friend to unlock that dialogue option.”  
“Oh yeah? What level am I at now?”  
“I’d say a solid 2.”  
“Yeah?”  
Wade nodded seriously before they both broke out into laughter.  
“If you want to get to a higher level you need to start spilling some stuff about you.”  
“Well that’s not very fair, I know next to nothing about you.”  
Wade shrugged, “Sorry Petey, I don’t make the rules here.”  
“You absolutely do!”  
The two were cut off with a yell from the back, “Peter we open in five, I hope you’re done.”  
“Aw shit I totally lost track of time, it usually doesn’t take this long to feed them.”  
“You feed the hamsters and company and I feed this fish? I kept a fish once.”  
“If you don’t mind. The amount they need is marked by a line on the cup above their tanks, and we only have three tanks so it should be pretty easy.”  
“Righty-o Sweetie”  
Wade skipped off to feed the fish and Peter laughed under his breath as he feed the little mammals the shop kept. A few spiders chirped as he turned back toward them.  
_Big friend face odd?_  
Mother change colors!  
Mother alright?  
Peter put a hand to his cheek only to find how warm it was. He quickly realized he was blushing, and put his cold hands up to cool down the heat on his cheeks. Stupid pale skin, anytime anyone says anything sweet he lights up like a Christmas tree.  
Wade’s loud voice breaks him out of his stupor, “do the creepy crawlies have names?” He’s staring at the little Red Leg from before.  
“Not really, I don’t name them because I don’t want to get attached and have to sell them.”  
“That’s fair. So, what’s on today’s agenda my friendly spider-man?”  
Peter was taken back a bit, “Spider-man?”  
“Yeah like man who works with spiders, I guess it’s a bit confusing with the whole Spider-man the hero thing. Whatever, maybe I’ll call you spider-boy”  
“Oh haha, I am a man for your information.”  
“Mhmmm I bet you’re like 18.”  
“22 actually,” He said crossing his arms grumpily.  
“Yes! I win. I got you to spill something about you.”  
“What?! That’s not fair!”  
“All’s fair in love and war baby boy.”  
“Well how old are you?”  
“That’s a level 3 question.”  
“You’re impossible Wade.”  
Wade just smiled cheekily in response.  
“I bet you won’t tell me because you’re an old man.”  
“Excuse you?!”  
“Don’t try to deny it Wade, I’d say you’re a solid 60.”  
“That’s just mean Petey, fine you win, I’m 30.”  
“Oh yeah?”

John came out from the back of the store, “Oh my god Peter, stop flirting and open the store”  
Peter’s face lit up bright red, “wait I wasn’t – I just-“  
Wade’s cracking up laughing was not helping the matter, “Don’t worry, I’ll be out of your hair,” he winked at Peter, “same time tomorrow?”  
“… Sure thing.”  
“See ya Peter!”  
John looked toward Peter suspiciously, “So… who was that?”  
“That was Wade, he has a fear of spiders, so I’m helping him out.”  
“You sure that’s all you’re helping him out with?”  
Peter had to stop himself from jumping in surprise, “What? We just met. Besides, dating and I don’t really get along.”  
“Who said dating?”  
Before Peter could respond, the smug older man had already walked back his office space. Peter shook his head and flipped the sign in the window, preparing for another boring day.

The end of the day came faster than Peter anticipated, but he was still more than ready for it to be over. He had just called Tony when he was hit by a crippling headache. He waited patiently by the front of the shop, while keeping one hand over the front of he forehead, rubbing small circles into the skin there. Given what had been happening recently, he couldn’t help but worry that this might have something to do with another mutation. All he could do was hope that Tony got here soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This time you only get a tiny hint towards the next mutation, feel free to guess what it is!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a tad late I know. To be fair though, I just got a job Thursday, and I've been working opening to close almost everyday. Excuses, excuses, i know. Without further ado though, enjoy!

When Tony got there, the headache was so bad Peter could barely kept his eyes open to the assaulting lights of the outside world. “Hey Tony,” he grumbled miserably.  
“What the hell happened to you kid?”  
“Light... hurts.”  
“Shit, here take these.” Tony passed Peter his dark sunglasses, which helped considerably. Unfortunately though, his head still pounded so hard he could swear he felt the blood pumping befhind his eyes. “Thanks Tony, that helps a bit.”  
“What happened?”  
“Just a really bad headache, it started a bit after I called you. Don’t worry about it. Any results on the mutation thing?”  
“A bit, he still doesn’t understand why it’s happening, but he’s trying to pinpoint how.”  
“And? Any luck?”  
“Not much, we just know your genes are working overtime, and they certainly aren’t done. Bruce is trying to figure out how to stop it, but he’s not having much luck yet though.”  
“Oh... and the venom?”  
“Now that we did get a result on. So the venom seems to be a neurotoxin, meaning it targets the nerves. We don’t know how strong it is yet, Bruce left earlier today to get some lab rats to figure out it’s toxicity.”  
“Wait what? Isn’t there any other way to test that?”  
“Unfortunately no. It’s a nesesary evil, we need to know how dangerous your venom is, and to do that we need to conduct a LD50 test.”  
“LD50?”  
“It stands for lethal dose 50%, basically the dose required to kill 50% of the test subjects.”  
“Can’t we just...skip that?”  
“This is really serious Pete, if your venom is dangerous we’ll need to start making an antivenom as soon a possible, which won’t be fun for anyone.”  
“I know, it’s just... this really sucks.”  
“I know bud”  
Peter leaned his head on Tony, and fell into a fitful sleep on the way back to the compound.

Peter woke up to the feeling of Tony nudging him and whispering, “wake up bud.” Peter groaned as his headache hit him again full force. The pain was awful, and he pressed the palm of his hand to he forehead, “Can I skip talking to Bruce and just go to sleep?”  
“Are you okay?”  
“Yeah, I’m fine I just need to sleep it off. Some pain meds might not be a bad idea though.”  
“How many do you need?”  
“I don’t know, a lot.”  
Peter climbed out of the car and headed inside, taking the long way to avoid the common area where he knew most of the avengers would be. 

Once he reached his room he threw his bag down at the door and flung himself onto his bed. A bottle of pain medication and a cup of water were on the side table. He hadn’t realized how long he had taken to reach his room, but he was grateful he wouldn’t have to wait even longer to sleep. He swallowed a large handful of them and let sleep claim him.

Waking up he immediately noticed that something was wrong. On the bright side, his headache was gone, but There was definitely something worse in its place. His vision was slightly blurry, as if his eyes were struggling to focus. At first he was worried that his vision had gone bad again. He feared that perhaps his original mutation had reversed itself. 

A few minutes of trying to see fortunately put those fears to rest. He could see fine again, in fact see could see really well. His depth perception was especially stellar. There was a major problem though; on top of the normal colors were colors he’d never seen before. Waves of the strange color poured in from the window like sunlight, and even the lights in his room let off a little bit. Peter put his hand to his forehead and snatched it away immediately, “What the hell!” He ran to the bathroom to see six eyes blink back at him in the mirror. There was a row of four eyes above his normal ones, a larger pair in the center that seemed to shine silver in the light and another pair of smaller eyes on the outside that were far darker. Peter couldn’t look away from his reflection as he slower reached up to his forehead. The small outer eye on the right side closed instinctually as he ran a finger over it. Tears leaked from his main set of eyes, while his two extra sets stayed dry as if proving how inhuman they were. He put a hand over the new sets, and the new colors went away, but it took him a second to readjust to the worse depth perception. “How the fuck am I supposed to hide this?” He uncovered his eyes again before wandering to his closet, hoping to find something to cover his eyes. He gave silent thanks as he pulled a knit beanie from his drawer that aunt may had given him last Christmas. Pulling it over his new set of eyes was a pain however, because it seemed that like normal eyes, it was pretty threatening having them covered. His spidey sense for one was much more on edge, seeming to think that his normal senses were hindered so it needed to compensate. With a tired groan Peter finished getting dressed and trudged down to the kitchen. 

Unfortunately, it seemed he was not alone. Everyone had seemed to decide that today they would all eat breakfast together. Steve called from the table, “Good morning Peter, we were worried about you last night, are you alright?”  
“I’m fine, just a bad headache.”  
Bruce spoke up at that, “Are you sure you’re okay? I was worried it might be another mutation.”  
Peter looked at the floor, “It was…”  
Steve walked over and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder, “It’s alright Peter, what happened?”  
Peter pulled off the beanie and looked up at Steve, “It’s horrible isn’t it?”  
Steve pulled him into a hug, “Peter no, this might be unusual, but it’s not horrible. We can work through it okay?” Peter nodded and sniffled a bit, “But what if it gets worse? Tony said you weren’t sure how far it would go, what if I just turn into a big spider? What if I can’t be ‘Spider-Man’ anymore, I’ll just be ‘Spider’.”  
Natasha walked over from the table and put her hand on his head, “Then you’ll be the bravest spider New York has ever seen, and we’d still love you.”  
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it Peter, but until then I’ll see what I can do to stop it from progressing, okay?”

Tony walked into the kitchen to see the three wrapped around Peter, “Wow, what did I miss?” Peter looked up at him, his six eyes shinning in the light, “Eye definitely missed something didn’t eye?” Peter went still.  
“Really Tony?” Steve chastised.  
“That was really cornea.” Peter mumbled.  
Tony smiled, “I just thought I’d break the Eyes.”  
Peter smiled back, “Eye’ll let it slide I guess.”  
Natasha smiled, “Eye guess Peter’s back to normal.”  
Peter looked at her in shock, “Was that a pun?!” She just smirked and walked back to the table to start eating again. Once Peter was released from the group hug, Tony walked over, “You okay kid?”  
“Yeah, I think so. I’m a bit worried about work though.”  
“Do you need something to hide them?”  
“I’ve got this beanie, but it’s a pain.”  
Tony thought for a second, “I could work on some kind of image inducer for you.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be too difficult, just give me a day or two okay?”  
Peter jumped at him, “You’re the best! Thank you so much!”  
“Of course kid, I’d do just about anything for you.”  
“I know”

Eating breakfast with everyone was really nice, and it was definitely something Peter missed living alone. Bruce asked quite a few questions about Peter’s new eyes. Turns out that quite a few spiders actually had pretty good vision, including the little wolf spider that had joined Peter for breakfast again this morning. The fuzzy brown spider was seated next to his plate of eggs, happily chittering to Peter while he leisurely stroked her back. She seemed pleasantly surprised that he could tell where she wanted to be pet thanks to her little chirps of _higher_ and _feel nice_ Eventually though, he had to go to work. He pulled his beanie over his eyes and shuddered and the feeling of vulnerability it gave him. His spider sense started quietly buzzing at the back of his brain, and he silently hoped that Tony worked quickly on the image inducer. Tony gave him a ride again, so he got to work with time to spare. 

When he got out of the car he noticed Wade standing by the front door diligently. He smiled at the familiar face, “Morning Wade.”  
Wade smiled wide, “Morning Petey Pie!”  
“You know I’m not supposed to let you in until we open.”  
“But you will anyway, right?”  
Peter pretended to think about it, “I don’t know, we aren’t even level 3 friends yet.”  
“Booooo.” He groaned collapsing onto Peter.  
Peter smiled, it was nice to know that even if his reality seemed to be crashing around him some things would stay consistent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems you guys are all really clever lol. I think everyone correctly guessed that I was giving Peter more eyes. I'll definitely be delving more into what these extra eyes mean for his vision. I did a lot of research on spider eyes and what it would look like if we could see UV light like a lot of spiders can, so I'll definitely incorporate that a lot more.
> 
> There aren't really any hints to the next mutation in this chapter, but I really enjoyed reading all of your guesses last chapter, so feel free to guess again! You guys have been incredibly welcoming and receptive, and I really appreciate the feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay everyone! I've been having some real life struggles, and with school starting on the 13th I might have to change posting to every other week. I do come bearing gifts though. I drew something for this chapter! it should be in the chapter, but if not I'll leave a link to the picture on my tumblr so you can see it :)

“So Peter, what spidery activities do you have planned for this morning?” Wade asked as Peter unlocked to door.  
“Pfffft, you think I have a plan? I don’t know.”  
“I could feed them again?” Wade sounded hopeful.  
“That’d be great, but they don’t actually need to eat all that often.”  
“That’s so sad, Alexa play despacito.”  
“Really Wade, bad memes?”  
Wade gasped, “You know the meme?! Cute, smart, and knows about memes, what a package deal you are Petey Pie! You’ve just been upgraded to level 3 friend.”  
“It was that easy?”  
Wade put a finger to Peter’s lips, “Shhhhhhh! We don’t want to let everyone know, I’ll be swarmed by new friends.”  
Peter laughed and pushed his finger away, “Wouldn’t want that. You stay here for a second, I have to head to the back to put up my stuff.”  
“No problemo.”

Peter put up his bag and was disappointed that he almost forgot why he couldn’t pull off the overly warm beanie. “Stupid mutation.” He mumbled under his breath. He pulled in a little farther down and stepped back out. “So wade, you want to pet a different one today?” Wade turned around, “N-not really. I kinda like the little red and black one, she’s sweet. Plus she only has two eyes so she isn’t as creepy.”  
Peter chewed the inside of his lip and subconsciously adjusted the beanie again, “Uh, right, yeah… no problem, less creepy is good.” Wade seemed to notice the change in mood, “You okay Peter?”  
“What? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Lets get the little red leg out.” The spider in question was happy to see her two large friends.  
_Big friends here!_  
Pet back!  
“She’s really happy to see you Wade.”  
“You flatterer, how can you tell?”  
“Well she obviously wants pets, so of course she’s happy.”  
Wade stepped closer and ran a finger down her back, “Hey there sweetheart.”  
Nice friend!  
The tarantula leaned into Wade’s hand and he looked down at her in awe. “I think she actually does like me!”  
“Told you, want to hold her?”  
“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea… what if she decides she doesn’t like being on my hand and she bites me?”  
“She won’t just bite you out of nowhere. I’ll tell you if she starts to get upset.”  
“Are you sure, the little fangs are pretty intimidating.”  
“Yes Wade, I’m sure.”  
“Fine just do it before I change my mind.” 

Peter smiled and guided the tarantula onto Wade’s open hand, and she crawled up without complaint. Wade’s eyes were shut tight not wanting to watch her climb on.  
_Pet stop?_  
“Wade, she’s there now.”  
“I know, I can feel her.”  
“Wade you should look. She’s not unhappy, she just wants to be pet.”  
Wade opened his eyes and raised his other hand to stroke her lightly, “You sure she’s okay?”  
“Positive.”  
Wade smiled a bit, “I still don’t like normal spiders, but these guys aren’t so bad.”  
Peter smiled back, “I’m glad you think so. You know, house spiders really aren’t all that different.”  
“They’re creepy! Crawling all over the ceiling like they own the place, watching you with those beady little spider eyes.”  
“What makes these so different then?”  
“I don’t know, It helps that they’re soft.”  
“Most spiders are furry Wade, try again.”  
“This one only has two eyes, similarity inspires sympathy.”  
Peter felt a twang of hurt again at his words, but he pushed it down, “What else?”  
“They’re too small, they could be hiding anywhere! These ones are bigger.”  
“So you want bigger spiders?” Peter laughed.  
“Wait no! Not like, Harry Potter big.”  
“So this size?”  
“Yeah I guess. Plus these ones are domesticated.”  
“Meh, not that much. They’re just comfortable around us. It’s less like a Wolf vs Dog thing and more like a stray vs pet thing. Did that make sense?”  
“So a wild tarantula could be kept as a pet?”  
“Probably not an adult, but if you raised a baby one, it should be okay.”  
“Did you raise any of these?”  
“Yeah, I was even there when some of them hatched”  
“So you’re like their mommy!”  
Peter laughed and smiled sofly, “Yeah, quite a few actually call me mother.” He froze, “Like metaphorically I mean!”  
Wade just gave him a quizzical look, “Okay?”  
“Whatever, I have to start up the computer and everything. Think you’re okay holding her, or should I put her back?”  
“Oh, um… does she look happy?”  
“Yeah, she likes being pet.”  
“Then she can stay with me I guess.”  
Peter smiled and walked over to the counter.

Peter’s spidey sense had been buzzing all morning thanks to his covered eyes, so when it spiked it was almost painful. Unfortunately, with the constant background static it was near impossible to actually tell what was about to happen. Peter looked over to Wade, but he seemed fine petting the little spider on his hand, who was still occasionally chirping how happy she was. With no other clues, Peter had one choice; he ran to the back and ripped the beanie off. His Spidey sense was screaming at him in more focus now, shouting that something was going wrong with his own body. It hadn’t reacted like this for his other mutations, but Peter had no doubt that’s what this was about. It must’ve been really bad to start affecting him so far. Peter sat on the floor, hands cradling his head trying to think back. The first mutation had started with no pain or any warning, happening the middle of the night, the second had begun to affect him at around 10pm, and the third bothered him at around 5pm. They were getting closer together! He was mutating faster, how soon until he wasn’t even a person anymore? Nat said they’d still love him, but what about the rest of New York? What about his friends? Sure he had like two but still!  
  
He had to get home before something happened, but his boss wouldn’t be in till noon. “Noon Peter, you can hang in there till noon.” Peter pulled the hat back over his eyes and managed to pull himself up onto shaking legs, “One thing at a time, just call Mr. Spinster.” Peter pulled out his cell and hoped to every deity out there that his boss would pick up. Thankfully on the third ring he heard a familiar, “hello?”  
“Hi Jonh, it’s Peter.”  
“Everything okay there?”  
“Store’s fine, but I’m not. I’m really sick, any way I could leave when you get here at noon?”  
“Sure Peter, I’ll try to be a bit early.”  
Peter sighed in relief, “Thank you so much.”  
“Anytime, fell better.”  
Getting off the phone soothed his anxiety a bit, but his spidey sense was not appeased. 

Peter headed back into the front room, where Wade was leaned against the wall whispering the tarantula. “A bet he’d love you, you know? Yeah, yeah more than me. God what a downer. You wouldn’t talk to me like that would you Little red? I know she can’t talk, but people talk to pets all the time so mind your own fucking business white.” He seemed to be talking to himself too, but peter didn’t really mind. The sight of his smiling so fondly at a spider probably would’ve made him smile if he wasn’t so damn nervous. Wade looked over to see Peter visually agitated, “Peter? Everything okay?”  
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just not feeling well.”  
“aww poor thing, want me to go grab you some chicken noodle soup?”  
Peter couldn’t help but smile at that, “No thanks wade, I’ll be okay.”  
“You should go home.”  
“I will once my boss gets here in 2 hours.”  
“Don’t worry little arachnid keeper, I’ll keep you company until then.”  
“I’d appreciate that.” 

It was about an hour in and Wade had still yet to put the spider down. A few customers had come in, and one man had just bought the tarantula in the cage right next to the Red leg’s. The Green Bottle blue chirped a lot, repeating  
_Confused??? New friend? Large big good, but scary._  
Peter wished he could explain what was going on, but he just smiled hoping it would comfort her that he wasn’t scared. It worked decently, and she got into her travel cage without to much fuss. 

After about 10 minutes of quiet Wade spoke up “I know you said you don’t name them, but I think this one deserves a name.”  
“Just this one?” Peter smirked.  
“Yeah… I like this one.”  
“You know Wade, they say it’s all over once you name them.”  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“What if someone buys her one day? She’s a friendly breed, really popular with first time spider owners.”  
“Then I’d be okay and hope she went to a nice home.”  
“What’d you name her?”  
“…Sprinkles”  
“Pffft that’s adorable,” He faced the spider, “Nice to officially meet you Sprinkles.”  
He knew the spider couldn’t really understand him, but her chirp of _Happy_ made him smile anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Incase you can't see the art, here's a link to my page [ here ](https://ice-cold-corgi.tumblr.com/post/176785951006)
> 
> Feel free to take a guess at the next mutation too, I love hearing from you guys.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So so sorry about the delay, school just started and i really needed all of that settled. I made a tumblr for my writing stuff incase you want to know how I'm doing with the next chapter. I'm going to try to make this bi-weekly on Monday's, but if there are any changes, I'll let you know [here](https://ice-cold-corgi-writing.tumblr.com)

Wade had been watching him carefully while they waited for noon, looking for any sign that he wasn’t as okay as he said he was. It was pretty endearing until he snuck over to the pharmacy next door while Peter was helping a customer. He came back with a 2-liter of ginger ale, painkillers, and a box of Hello Kitty Band-Aids.  
“The Band-Aids are just for show Petey-Pie.” Wade smiled as he opened the box and stuck one to Peter’s arm, “The Pain meds are the really important part.”  
“Thanks Wade, but I’ll be fine. Seriously, I don’t really get sick often.”  
“I don’t care about often, you’re in pain now.”  
Peter sighed and took four of them while Wade chastised him about overdosing. 10 minutes later he took six more.

It was about 11 am when Peter’s boss showed up to take over, and Peter could not be happier. His spidey sense was going mad, and his whole body ached terribly despite the bit of relief the medicine had provided. “I really appreciate this John.”  
“No worries Peter, you just get better. Give me a call when you think you’re okay to come back in okay? I’ve already called Andrea to take over your shifts.”  
Peter nodded and headed to the back to grab his bag. He was stopped by Wade standing in the doorway, “Can I call you an Uber, or a cab, or something?”  
Peter smiled, “Thanks, but I should have a ride. I called him about an hour ago, so he’ll probably be here soon.”  
Wade looked incredibly nervous, “So since you probably won’t be here for a day or two I guess our spider time will be put on hold, huh?”  
“I guess so, I’m sorry Wade.”  
“It’s fine Peter, you need to get better… Maybe I could get your number and you can keep me updated on how you’re feeling?”  
Peter smiled “Sounds good. Here, hand over your phone.”  
Wade looked near giddy as he handed over his phone. 

Tony’s car pulled up right as he was finished. Peter didn’t fail to notice how Wade shifted his face away from where the car could see it. Peter handed back the phone, “go ahead and text me and I’ll add you as a contact. See ya Wade!”  
Wade just smiled and waved as Peter nearly threw himself into the back seat.

Tony looked worried, “Everything okay small fry?”  
Peter gave an exasperated sigh and let his smile drop, “It absolutely is not… I think I’m mutating faster now Tony.” He had been keeping things together relatively well, but at this point he just broke down, letting tears pour from his two human eyes. He ripped the beanie off and buried his face in Tony’s shoulder. “I don’t wanna be a freak…”  
Tony just stroked his hair soothingly without a word.

Peter had fallen asleep on him and Tony didn’t know what to do. All of the previous mutations had happened while he was asleep, and if he was honest, he really didn’t want to watch it happen. When Peter started groaning uncomfortably in his sleep 30 minutes in Tony had half a mind to wake him up just in case. He looked down at peter and was slightly disturbed to watch the change happen. Seeing it was one thing. Watching it develop? Entirely different. The hair on his arms was getting longer and more coarse. Tony tore his eyes away and shut them before resting his head softly on top of Peter’s, he just wished he could help. The only thing he could do at this point was be there when he woke up.

When Peter woke up he was still in the car, but it was stopped and in the massive garage at the compound. His head was still rested against Tony’s shoulder. “Tony?”  
“Hey squirt, I wanted to be here when you woke up this time.”  
Peter closed his eyes, “Is it bad?”  
“I just have to work double time on that image inducer that’s all.”  
Peter opened half of his eyes, “have a mirror?”  
“Well it’s kinda… all over.”  
Peter opened all six eyes and looked down at his hands. Thick dark red hair coated his hands and his arms up to his elbows where there was a stripe of royal blue followed by a more vivid red. The palms of his hands were the only things he could see that weren’t furry. “Oh god… Is it… everywhere?”  
“I think so, it’s on your face too.”  
He pulled out his forward facing camera and started crying again. The area around his eyes was a dark red that mirrored his lower arms and faded to an almost brown color as it neared his hairline and jaw. His fluffy brown hair was only a tad longer than the rest of the hair on his face and didn’t standout all that much anymore. Peter whimpered, “Tony I’m a monster.”  
“No you aren’t Peter, you’re just a bit hairier now. I’ll get that image inducer working and it’ll be like nothing ever changed.”  
“Except it has changed! Everything’s changed and who even knows if it’s done? Bruce can’t do anything. I know you won’t tell me, but he has no idea how to fix me does he? You say you’re working on in but the truth is you’re as lost as I am! I’m not an idiot; I know that an image inducer won’t fix everything. You can’t change what I feel like, and I doubt a bit of grooming can fix this. I’ll be living as a recluse for the rest of my natural life, isn’t that ironic?” Peter curled into a ball in the far seat from Tony.  
Tony in return scooted closer, “Hey Peter?”  
“…what?”  
“You won’t be a recluse, you know why?”  
“Why?”  
“Because you have us. You have the worlds best superheroes who care about you and will do everything in their power to make sure you feel loved and appreciated. Bruce might not have anything yet, but you can bet your ass he’s never going to stop working until your happy, be it extra mutated or not. I’ll get that image inducer up and running and you’ll be able to walk around in your everyday clothes like nothing is wrong, because it won’t be. Because even if we can’t get rid of these extra mutations, you’re still you; our favorite little spiderling.”  
Peter sniffled and rubbed his eyes, “Thank you.”  
Tony just smiled and pulled Peter into his arms.

Peter hadn’t meant to fall asleep again, but he realized he had passed out again when he was woken by tapping on the window. He wiggled out of Tony’s grip and open looked out the window to find Steve standing outside the tinted window, still not able to see inside. Peter shook his pillow awake before calling out loudly, “Hey Steve?”  
“yes?”  
“I’m going to warn you before I get out, my mutation got worse again.”  
“Peter that’s fine, you know we don’t care.”  
Peter opened the door and wanted to close his eyes, not wanting to see the look of disgust or pity that was surely on the Cap’s face. He was surprised to only find a small smile, “Come on sport, all that mutating has to have made you hungry.”

Steve didn’t say another word about it as the three of them headed upstairs, only occasionally getting close enough to brush against Peter’s bare arm as if trying to show how little he minded. The rest of the team acted similarly to his surprise, acting like they didn’t notice his now furry, well, everything. It was a bit awkward at first, but dinner quickly dissolved into pleasant conversation and terrible jokes like it always did, and the feeling of normality made him feel better than anything else really could. Steve asked him about work and he pleasantly chatted on about the different spiders and how they all seemed to really like him. Clint couldn’t contain his giggles when he was told that some of them referred to him as their mother,  
“What a poor single mother you are.”  
Steve chimed in, “Well of course he’s single, spiders eat their mates.”  
“Tough luck peter, “ Clint laughed  
“Oh come on, not all spiders eat their mates! In fact most of them don’t!” Peter whined.  
“What about the black widow?” Tony asked.  
“I mean sometimes, yeah, but even then it’s not a guarantee or anything.”  
“Learn something new new everyday. “ Steve mumbled.

That night as Peter was heading to his room he got a text from an unknown number  
**Heya Petey, Wade here! Wanted to check in on my favorite spider keeper now that you’ve had some time to sleep a bit <3 **  
Peter smiled to himself and climbed into bed not wanting to see his fuzzy body more than he had to by getting undressed. He entered in Wade’s name and sent a text back  
**P: Hi Wade, I’m doing a bit better now but I’ll probably still be out for a day or two  
** **W: No problem little bug  
** **P: Spiders still aren’t bugs wade  
** **W: idc  
** **W: I saw the cutest dog today Petey!!!  
** **P: get a pic?  
** **W: no :(  
** **W: I got a pick of something else though ;) ;) ;)  
** **P: …  
** **W: It’s a spider!!!!  
** **P: Oh my god  
** **W: I knew you’d like it  
** **W: I braved it just for you Peteroni  
** **W: Felling better yet?  
**P: A bit actually, thanks Wade  
**W: .3.  
**P: I’ve got to get some sleep now, but I’ll definitely text you again soon okay?  
**W: Sounds good Pete  
**W: Sweet Dreams  
**W Don’t let the bedbugs bite  
  
Peter smiled warmly at his phone as he set it down on his nightstand. Whatever happened, he was just so glad he didn’t have to face it alone. Having Wade and the team gave his that feeling of normalcy back. A little chittering noise brought him back to attention.  
_Big friend?_  
The wolf spider from before was sitting on his nightstand, staring up at him.  
_friend change. Okay?_  
Peter reached out to stroke them, “Yeah little guy, I’m gonna be okay”**************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we got a tidbit of angst this chapter, I swear that wasn't supposed to happen. I'm so glad you guys are loving Sprinkles as much as I do! You can defiantly count of some cute art of her soon :) One person got the mutation right for this chapter! I'd love to hear your theories on the next mutation. The end of the mutating is in sight guys!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay! I had an awful, basically week long anxiety last week thanks to my job. There were so many illegal practices and things but the good news is that I quit. I'm trying to get school back on track this week, but I used writing and drawing to calm me down. I really wanted to apologize so here's an extra long chapter with art!

Peter woke up with a groan and the feeling of something on his face. He reached up to find the wolf spider asleep on his cheek. He scooped them up, “Morning small fry.” The spider chittered at him happily,  
_big friend soft_  
Peter smiled, “You like that I’m soft? That makes one of us I guess.”  
Peter stilled when he heard a knock at the door followed by Tony’s voice, “hey itsy bitsy, you up? Bruce made breakfast.”  
Peter groaned, “ughhh don’t call me that. Ill be there in a minute.” 

Peter moved to the bathroom and set the little wolf spider on the counter. He groaned miserably when he looked in the mirror. He thought his normal bed head was bad, but this was so much worse. The fur on the side he slept on was pressed flat, and the rest of it was in complete disarray. “I’m going to need a brush,” he said combing his fingers over his furry cheeks. 

After the fur on his face was at least somewhat calmed he walked back to his room to grab a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. He had given up on trying to settle the rest of his fur, which was not only messy, but also super sensitive to any kind of stimulation. He could feel the vibrations of the others in the building moving about through his feet, and feel the presence of the wolf spider clinging to his shoulder without looking.  
“This is really weird spider, is this what you feel all the time?” The spider looked up to acknowledge at him but said nothing, “yeah I know you don’t know what I’m saying.”  
_Happy!_  
Peter smiled, “close enough.”

The smell of food assaulted him the moment he opened his door, and he quickly made his way to the kitchen. Peter smiled wide and wiped away a bit of venom that had drooled from his mouth, “Morning Bruce, what’s cooking?” Bruce shoved Peter away from what looked like enough bacon to feed a small army, “Absolutely not Peter, you get out of the kitchen.”  
“What? Why?”  
Bruce looked at him his he had just asked what 2+2 was, “Are you serious? You are a walking talking food safety violation. You are literally 5 feet and 8 inches of shedding fur and poison. I love you, but go sit down and don’t touch anything.”  
Peter grumbled but fell into a seat at the table with his arms crossed. “Stupid safety rules, huh spider?” The wolf spider crawled off of his shoulder and sat on the table.  
_Pet! Pet!_  
Peter laughed and ran a finger down her back, “at least someone appreciates what I do for this family.” Tony chose that moment to walk in from the living room, “And that would be what exactly?” He took a long swing from an oversized coffee mug before looking over and actually meeting Peters eyes, “Oh, morning Peter.”  
“Hold my earrings spider” Peter said straight faced before launching himself out of the chair. Tony immediately held his coffee cup high in the air expecting a tackle and was caught of guard by Peter using his organic web shooters to snatch the mug instead. He pulled on the strand of webbing and caught the cup out of the air before Tony could stop him. “Hey! I call foul play!” Tony shouted as Peter downed the rest of the Coffee. Bruce rolled his eyes, “you two are actual children. Friday, tell Stave to get in here and be a positive roll model.”  
“Mr. Rogers says he’ll be in in a moment.”  
Peter smirked before sitting back down, still holding the coffee cup, “Now you’ve done it.”  
“Me?!”  
Steve walked into the room, “Tony, what did you do?”  
Tony just stared at him, “seriously?”  
Steve sat down at the table across from peter, “Good morning, did you sleep okay last night?”  
“Morning, I’ve slept better, but overall I’m not bad.”  
“That’s good, no more… mutating?”  
“Not last night no, but I woke up sore so it can’t be far off.”  
Steve put a hand on his arm, “we’re here for you.”  
Tony pulled out the chair next to him and grabbed his empty cup back before ruffling the fluff on top of his head, “We’ve got your back squirt, don’t forget it.”  
Peter smiled up at both of them individually, “I know.”

Bruce walked over to the table with his arms full of bowls of bacon and eggs, “It’s just us this morning, so we can start eating now. Oh and Peter, I need to talk to you after breakfast okay?” Peter gave off an affirmative noise before shoveling food in his face.

Breakfast itself was comfortably silent, until they had finished eating and Peter walked over to put their dishes away. Bruce got up to help him, “So Peter, I know you don’t want to hear this right now, but we ran an LD 50 on your venom.”  
“What? How’d you do that already? Did I really give you that much venom?”  
“No you didn’t, that’s the problem. We knew we didn’t have much venom to work with but we decided to start the test anyway and get more today. Turns out we didn’t need much to find out what the potency of your venom is.”  
“You mean… it was less than I gave you? But you had to have a few dozen rats at minimum.”  
“200… 200 rats, we wanted to be sure…”  
Peter stumbled back to the chair, catching himself on the table before he collapsed. “So… I’m lethal huh?”  
“Extremely so, your Ld50 is 1.5 mg, so not as bad as a black widow, but pretty close. Considering how much you put out… You gave me 1,000 mg of pure venom once we extracted it from the drool.”  
“So my mutation took the deadly route…”  
“It would appear so, it’s probably meant to be a protective measure because of how often you get hurt. Tony also thinks it may be due to spending time around so many other spiders.”  
“Wait so my job did this?!”  
“It’s a possibility, but my guess is that it just sped it along. With how often you get hurt, your body was bound to do something to try to stop it. Your first mutation was special in that it made you far more susceptible to future mutating. My best guess is that it’s because you’re a mutate not a mutant.”  
“Anyway we can make it stop?”  
Bruce hung his head, “I’m doing what I can peter, but you’re changing so fast I don’t know if I can make something before you mutate again and it throws my data off. I’ll take a few more blood samples and see what I can do. I’m doing my best, but it just isn’t good enough.”  
Peter sighed and put his head in his arms, “I know you are… I just wish this wasn’t happening. Is that image inducer ready yet by any chance?”  
Tony threw his hands down on the table, “Damn it Peter, ruin the surprise why don’t you?”  
Peter lifted his head quickly, using the palm of his hand to wipe away the beginning traces of tears from his fur, “You did it?!”  
“Course I did pipsqueak. I said I would, didn’t I?”  
Peter leaped over the table to tackle Tony in a hug, “Thank you thank you thank you!!!”  
“Calm down kid, we don’t even know if it works properly yet. I took one of the scans of you from Friday and programed it in, so it should be good to go, but we need to test it out. It’s still in the lab so,” Tony stood up, but Peter still clung to his chest, “You need to let go Peter.”  
“No, I’m too happy to walk.”  
Steve cracked up laughing, “You heard him Tony.”  
“What? I can’t carry him, he’s a grown man Steve,” Tony tried to pull him off only to find his fingers stubbornly stuck to his shirt, “Are you kidding me Peter?”  
“No.”  
“Let him have this one thing Tony.”  
“Then you carry him!”  
Bruce just sighed and poured himself another cup of coffee as he leaned on the counter top, “Children, all of you.”

They eventually got into the lab, Peter riding on Steve’s shoulders. Tony gave an over exaggerated sigh, “Alright Peter, get down so I can show you how to work this thing.”  
Peter gave a huge fang filled smile and hoped down, bouncing on the balls of his feet like an excited puppy. Tony pulled out a silver watch sized device, “This is the image inducer; it creates a holographic image around a person making them look like whatever you want. In your case Peter, it just makes you appear how you looked before your… extra hair.”

Peter grabbed it and could barely stop fidgeting enough to let Tony lock it closed around his wrist. Tony smiled warmly, “It’s 100% waterproof, and pretty much indestructible. God knows you need it indestructible.”  
“So how does it work?”  
“Alright,” Tony said placing his thumb over the glass of what looked like a normal watch, “The glass here is sensitive to your thumbprint and mine, and when unlocked it slides back like so.” The piece of the device that looked like a watch slid back to reveal a single switch, “The position closest to your hand is off, and the other way is on. I’ll let you do the honor.” Tony took his hand away and Peter was quick to flip the switch. Immediately an image of plain white skin appeared starting from the watch and eventually covering his whole body. Peter stared at his bare hands for a moment before taking off at a dead sprint.

When he reached the bathroom he saw his reflection in the mirror, he looked completely human again. His hand moved up to hover above his cheek as is to feel it before he stopped. This wasn’t real, the moment he touched his fur his illusion of normalcy would fade. He chose to open his mouth instead, looking at his normal rounded canines. He yanked his shirt off, looking at the perfectly smooth skin over his abs and hips where his knew his new web shooters hid under a façade. Six eyes looked into the mirror, but only two looked back at him and he allowed the tears to fall. He didn’t dare brush them away for fear of feeling the fur he knew rested under his eyes.

A small knock sounded at the door followed by Steve’s hesitant voice, “Peter? Can we come in?” Peter nodded not moving his eyes from his reflection before remembering they couldn’t see him through a closed door. “Yeah, you can come in.”  
Tony walked in first and Peter tore his eyes from the mirror version in order to hold him in a suffocating hug. “Thank you Tony.” He whispered into his shirt. Tony wrapped his arms around him and put his forehead against the top of his head. “You know I’d do anything for you kid.”  
“Yeah, I know.”  
Steve walked in next and wrapped his arms around both of them, trapping Peter between them, “We love you Peter.”  
Peter smiled wider, “I know, I love you too.”

Peter was lying across the couch an hour later fidgeting with it, watching happily as he turned the image inducer off and on again when his cell phone buzzed.  
**Wade: sup petey pie, feeling better?**  
Peter smiled, closing his watch to open up messenger.  
**Peter: Actually, I am feeling a bit better. Not sure when I’ll be back at work though.  
** **W: awww that’s too bad  
** **W: want some soup? I’ll bring it wherever you want I’m quite the chef ;)  
** **P: I wouldn’t want you to catch anything  
** **W: you don’t have to worry about that, It’s pretty much impossible for me to get sick  
** **W: seriously, immune system for days  
** **P: That makes about zero sense Wade.  
** **W: it meeeans you have no excuse to deny my excellent care taking**  
Peter let out a little half snort and snuggled into the blanket resting on the couch.  
**P: As wonderful as I’m sure you are at taking care of sick people, I’m not even in town rn.  
** **W: tf are you doing out of bed?!  
** **P: No I mean I’m at my friend’s/family’s house. They’re taking good care of me don’t worry.  
** **W: they better be!  
** **W: they like a friend of the family or?  
** **P: Not really, more like a pseudo family.  
** **W: wooow big kid words  
** **P: They’re are family as they can be without being blood. I don’t have much blood family left.  
** **W: I get that Petey  
** **P: Anyway, what about you?  
** **W: I ALMOST FORGOT  
** **W: I took a picture of a BIG yellow spider for you  
** **P: dsajkl Lemme see!  
** **W: lol love the fake key smash  
** **P: Shut up  
** **W: Here it is you nerd  
** **P: awww it’s a big ol’ golden orb weaver  
** **W: I was right!!!  
** **P: What?  
** **W: you ARE a nerd  
** **P: What? Why?  
** **W: you knew what spider it was  
**P: It’s a common spider Wade.****

****

****

************************************************************************************************************Peter felt the little wolf spider crawl up the back of the couch he was leaning against through the vibrations against his fur. The spider still didn’t have a name, and Peter had come up with absolutely nothing. He put his hand up to greet her and she hesitated before putting a single leg out to feel him.  
_not soft?_  
She jumped a little when the leg brushed against fur  
_still soft!!!_  
Peter laughed, “Yep still soft. Come on I wanna take a picture of you for Wade.” She climbed up a bit hesitantly; being able to feel fur and not see it must have been a bit odd. She chirped at him,  
_confused? Like soft_  
Peter sighed, “I know it’s strange.”  
**P: So, I have a little spider friend if you wanna see?  
** **W: Sure, but it has to be in a super cheesy selfie.  
** **P: What? Why?  
** **W: Assthetic  
** **P: Did you spell that wrong on purpose?  
** **W: maybeeeee**  
**P: Wow… One super cheesy pet selfie coming up**

********************************************************************************************************Peter pulled up the camera app and held his hand closer to his face, “All right spider, smile!” The spider just looked at him curiously, acknowledging that he made noise right as the picture was taken. The result was Peter’s beaming face with his little spider friend looking directly at him. “Awww this is cute!” Peter opened up messenger again.  
**P: As requested.  
** **W: what a good spider buddy**  
**W: freaky but good**  
**W: are they soft?**  
**P: Yeah, she’s pretty soft. She loves being pet.  
** **W: she doesn’t look quite as fuzzy  
** **P: She’s a wolf spider, not a tarantula, so that’s probably why**  
**W: what? And that’s okay???**  
**P: Spiders just seen to like me I guess.  
** **W: well what’s her name?**  
**P: She actually doesn’t have a name yet  
** **W: Peter! I’m disappointed in you!**  
**W: you were really going to let this poor helpless creature go around without a name?**  
**W: that’s it, I’m naming her**  
**P: Go right ahead.**  
**W: I don’t need your approval to give her a basic human right**  
**P: but she’s not… never mind**  
**W: mhm that’s what I thought.**  
**W: spider, I dub thee Chimichanga**  
**W: In honor of one of the most fun words to say ever created**  
**P: That’s such a long name though!**  
**P: I’m calling her Chimi for short**  
**W: Meh that’s fine**  
**W: not as cool as Chimichanga but whatever**  
**W: I’ve got to go but you and Chimichanga be good okay?**  
**P: Will do Wade. Talk to you later.**  
**W: bye bye Petey Pie!**  


********

****

Peter put his phone down next to him and allowed Chimi to crawl up to lie on his bare chest. “It is nice having a name for you Chimi.” Chimi chirped a small  
_feels nice_  
He knew she meant his fur, but he’d like to believe she would like her name too. 

He was just starting to fall into a nap when a sudden spike of pain woke him up. He really hoped it was just a cramp or something but of course he was never that lucky. He stated rubbing his aching jaw, but the pain just kept building. “Great,” he mumbled into his hands, “more mutations.” He rubbed at his jaw a bit more before the pain got to the point he was almost in tears. “Tony! Tony, I need pain meds please!”  
Friday answered instead, “I’ve informed Mr. Stark for you. He says he will be right up Peter.”  
Peter thanked him a hundred times over in his head for the invention of Friday as he felt Tony get up from his chair down in the lab and start speed walking to the elevator. He didn’t know how long it’d be until the onset of his mutation made him pass out, but he didn’t intend on spending a single moment in pain that he didn’t have to. When Tony got there Chimi was obviously aware that something was wrong with her friend and was chittering nervously at him as he did his best to soothe her. “Hey kid, brought Cap’s pain pills for you.” He tossed the bottle like it was just a normal day, but Peter could see the worry etched on his face. He swallowed two dry before chucking the bottle back, “Thanks dad.” Tony stopped in his tracks as Peter realized what he said.  
“yeah, no problem kiddo. I’m going to get going, because… well…”  
“It’s umm… it’s fine. You don’t want to see whatever horrors are about to go down on my face I get it.”  
“Do you want me to stay? I will.”  
“It’s fine, I’ll sleep through it and go right to you after.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“I’m sure, now shoo. Let a guy mutate in peace.”  
Tony walked over and ruffled his hair before walking over to the doorway, “Just call if you need anything.”  
Peter nodded and lazily stroked Chimi’s back. As the pain pills started kicking in he finally felt the pain begin to fade as he fell into a deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, if anything like this happens again you can check out my tumblr specifically for my writing [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ice-cold-corgi-writing)  
> If the art didn't show up, you can also find it [here](https://ice-cold-corgi.tumblr.com/post/178414558241/heres-some-more-extra-spidery-spider-man-for-my)


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry for the delay. I've been having a lot of issues with school, and I just moved. My life has been a wreck. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Peter woke up to find that although the pain on his jaw was gone, a far more unsettling feeling had taken its place. Chimi was still resting on his stomach, so he scooped her up and hesitantly made his way to the bathroom mirror. Two fuzzy pincers protruded from right above his jawbone, sharp looking claws adorning the tips. Peter stared in the mirror for a moment before immediately switching on his image inducer. The image of smooth skin washed over his face and he looked down at Chimi as she chirped at him,   
_Friend big spider_  
He smiled sadly, _yeah, it’s weird huh?_  
All six eyes widened in shock, as his words came out in chirps like Chimi’s. Chimi on the other hand seemed ecstatic,   
_BIG FRIEND CAN TALK!_  
Peter was completely startled by the noise, _What? No!_  
 _Proud of big friend!_  
 _Chimi no! This isn’t a good thing! I’m supposed to speak human not spider!_  
 _Big friend speak to me! Good! Love big friend!_  
Peter sighed, _I love you too Chimi, but I need to be speaking my language. I’m going to go talk to Tony okay?_  
 _Tony? Tony big friend’s mother?_  
Peter smiled and pet her, _Not really, more like a dad_  
Chimi climbed onto Peter’s hand, _don’t understand. Go to Tony now?_  
Peter nods and leaves the bathroom to head down to Tony’s lab.

Peter knocked on the door nervously; he tried speaking but startled when his pincers move to make the sound instead. He cleared his throat nervously, and focused desperately to make noise from his mouth. He let out a small noise, before he went back to chirps. Every time he thought about speaking, his pincers move to make the words a series of chirps, like they were overriding his instinct to use his vocal cords. 

Tony opened the door to find Peter in tears, the image inducer was running, so he had no idea what the problem was. Peter opened his mouth as if to speak, but not sound came out, instead there was the faintest sound of clicking, _Not good Tony, I can’t speak_. Tony reached out to grasp Peter’s shoulder, “Peter? Are you okay?” Peter shook his head desperately in reply; his motions fast and panicked. Tony spoke quietly, “Can you show me what’s wrong?” Peter reached down to turn off the image inducer, chittering nervously, _I’m so scared_ Chimi climbed up his arm rubbed herself against his cheek, _Big friend is okay_

When the image inducer turned off, Tony stepped back, “Are those some kind of pincers?”  
Peter nodded, _They make the chirp noise, my throat isn’t working_  
Tony again only heard the quiet chirps, “Are you trying to speak?”  
Peter shook his head slowly, as if ashamed, _I’m scared_  
Chimi rubbed an arm against Peter, _calm friend,_  
Tony shook his head, “Lets go sit on the couch. You panicking probably isn’t helping anything. If the mutation is from your body trying to protect you it makes sense that it’s going override since you’re scared. If you settle down and give yourself some time to think, it’ll probably settle the mutation.” Peter nodded silently and gently grasped Tony’s hand, letting himself be lead to the living room.

Tony spent several minutes lightly brushing Peter’s fur while Peter worked on settling his anxiety. After a while Peter attempted to speak again, “T-Tony?”   
Tony smiled, “There you are kid. Told you it was fine.”  
Peter looked down, “I was so scared Tony.”  
Tony shushed him lightly, “It’s okay Peter, we’re here for you.”

They sat together watching TV, before Peter suddenly looked up, “I think I’m going to go back to work tommorow.”  
Tony looked down in surprise, “Are you sure you’re good to go back now?”  
Peter nodded, “I have the image inducer now, and I feel a lot better I need to get back to having a schedule and having things to do. I want to get out a patrol again, but I need a new suit, so that’ll be a while for me to fix. If the mutation isn’t over, it’ll let me know right? I can’t let this rule my life.”  
Tony smiles, “You’re the bravest kid I know, you know that?”  
Peter laughed and hit him lightly, “I’m 22 Tony.”  
Tony shrugged, “You’re basically my kid.”  
Peter smiled and curls into Tony’s side, “Thanks dad.”  
Tony beamed down at him, “No problem squirt.”

Peter spent the rest of the day practicing switching between speaking with his mouth and with his pincers until it was easy to switch back and forth. Tony and Chimi with both very helpful. Their job was to calm him down every time Peter panicked about getting stuck, which happened quite a bit at the beginning. Slowly but surely, he got the hang of it. He figured out that as long as he kept a level head he could focus well enough to speak from his throat. Although, it was upsetting that spider was now his default. In the back of his mind he worried about what would happen under pressure, quips were kind of his thing.

At dinner that night, Peter told everyone about his new mutation. They responded by spending the rest of the evening having Peter talk for the spiders around the tower. They used his as a translator to negotiate a peace deal between the humans and spiders living in the avengers building. Basically a “don’t fuck with me I won’t fuck with you” deal. Clint thought the whole ordeal was hilarious, so of course he was one of the most enthusiastic. Steve, who had a very strong dislike of spiders prior to this, made sure to add that his room was absolutely off limits, no exceptions. The spiders found it amusing to talk to the “big ones” and were eager to agree to their terms provided their webs went untouched; they worked hard on those dammit. Peter was half glad for the practice, and half annoyed at being used as a translating device.

That night, Peter called Mr. Spinster to let him know he was feeling better, and could head back to work the next day. Mr. Spinster was overjoyed, saying the spiders were going to be glad to have him back. Peter of course knew that he just didn’t like getting up early to open, and he didn’t trust anyone else to do it. 

The next morning Peter felt better than he had in several days. It finally felt like things were back to normal, other than the lasting mutations of course. He immediately texted Wade,  
 **Morning Wade! I’m going back to work today.**  
He got a text back almost instantly.  
 **PETEY!!! ur alive! how’s Chimichanga? I’ll be there this morning don’t u worry!**  
Peter laughed,   
**She’s great Wade. I’ll see you in a few hours okay?**  
Peter smiled warmly at the heart Wade sent back and was quick to get dressed.

Tony met Peter in the kitchen, “You sure you’re okay?”  
Peter nodded, “yep, can you drive me again?”  
“Sure… I’m proud of you, you know that right?”  
Peter rolled his eyes, “Of course.”

When they pulled up Wade was already waiting outside, shifting from foot to foot. Peter got out of the car before turning back, “I’m going to go back to my apartment to check on everything, I’ll call you if I need anything.”  
Peter ran up to Wade, “Good to see you again Wade.”  
Wade spun around quickly, and grabbed Peter in a hug, “Petey!”  
Peter struggled lightly, “Waaaade, hugging is a no go until at least level 5 friend.”  
Wade refused to let go, “That’s fine, we can skip level 4.”   
Peter laughed, “You can’t just skip levels! We’ve know each other like a few weeks,” He thought for a moment, “Actually, that just means I’m closer to finding out your crush at level 10.”  
Wade let go so fast Peter had to catch himself, “Oops, nevermind.”  
“Nope! No take backs now Wade, or should I say, level 5 friend.”  
“Peteeeeey.” Wade whines, “You tricked me.”  
“I did no such thing. Come on, I need to open up.”  
Wade smiled warmly at Peter, “Fine, you know I can’t stay mad at you.”  
Peter rolled his eyes, “You’re a damn mess Wade.”  
Wade pulled Peter into another hug, “Perchance, but at least I get free Peter hugs now.”   
Peter to try to get out of his hold, while relishing Wade’s heat. Peter mumbled to himself, “right back at you.”


End file.
